2022-23 Hot Stove thread

Breaking: Carlos Correa and the Mets have a deal. $315M, 12 years.

— Jon Heyman (@JonHeyman) December 21, 2022

what the fuck

Whoa, this is actually real. The deal with the Giants fell apart due to problems with his physical.

A lot of FA deals are "pending a physical" but I can't remember one that actually fell through because of it. Certainly not one as big as this.

levels of "what the fuck" here:

- giants postponing the signing announcement and then the mets swooping in before anyone knew the deal had officially fallen apart
- mets adding another mega contract and pushing their total payroll with tax to like half a billion dollars
- mets signing him to play 3B when much of his value comes from being a good SS and he's never played 3B at any level
- 3 in the morning

- no one knows what the problem with the physical was

holy hell!

!!

Carlos Correa leaving the Giants medical office after “failing his physical.” pic.twitter.com/5viPoDxn0H

— Paul Sanchez (@PAlberto_EXE) December 20, 2022

lol

big willy wonka somersault energy

geniune lols there

I also love the unintentional humour in this NY Post article, I'm just imagining Steve Cohen closing this deal from his deck chair in Hawaii:

https://nypost.com/2022/12/21/carlos-correa-agrees-to-12-year-315-million-deal-with-mets/

omg what

This seems like it could be a heel turn for Cohen. Like all of the sudden next year MLB see decides there should be a limit to how much money a team can spend.

Can hardly believe this is real, honestly.

the fact that he took less money, especially as a boras client, to me implies that there was at least some merit to what the giants saw in the physical

Mets signing a player who just failed a physical to a monster contract: what could go wrong?

lol the Mets deal is also “pending a physical”

what the fuck!!

Think of how many people are going to be opening Carlos Correa Giants gear on Sunday.

— Sean Keane (@seankeane) December 21, 2022

it is time to bring back pete kozma on a 13-year deal

The overall numbers of the Mets’ spending spree continue to stagger. Assuming Correa’s contract pays him $26.25MM in each year of the deal, the Amazins’ payroll will now soar past the $377MM mark for 2023. Having already far surpassed the fourth and highest tier ($293MM) of Competitive Balance Tax penalties, New York is paying a 90% tax on every dollar spent beyond the $293MM threshold. That works out to roughly $23.62MM added to the Mets’ tax bill, thus putting their luxury tax number over $386MM.

It’s a neat trick to become the enemy of both the Dodgers and Giants

https://i.imgur.com/fSVeL3H.png

mets already have $262M on the payroll for 2024, too

https://www.fangraphs.com/roster-resource/breakdowns/payroll

All that fucking money and no WS titles since 1986? In that context, they can feel free to sneer more imo.

billionaires cant turn heel (they are heels by default) and/but i love that *anyone* is willing to show that the luxury tax is not the same thing as a cap

There’s gotta be a billionaire hedge fund manager who’s also a pirates fan, right? Feels like this situation could be replicated.

jimmy the mod otm, i hate when any mlb owner cries poverty (the boss was a tyrannical nutjob but at least we always new he wanted to win!)

*knew

warning: this guy is probably a gigantic asshole and possibly cannot be trusted

Per source: Carlos Correa's health insurance wouldn't cover his physical with the Giants. The Giants asked him to pay out of pocket and instead he decided to sign with the Mets when Steve Cohen offered to cover his Giants and Mets physicals.

— Mark Gooden (@TooGooden17) December 21, 2022

but is this true? he's a beat writer for the NYM and gets to vote for the HOF, but also, he writes for the fucking federalist, fucking gross man

but if that's true i don't...know wtf is going on anymore. would someone really blowup a 14 year contract and take ~$50M less on another one because of this?

No, that’s not true.

maaan, now i linked to twitter AND a guy from the federalist, AND it was wrong

christmas is ruined

all i can do is take a screenshot of this chart from fangraphs and hope that it brings as much joy to others as it did for me

https://i.imgur.com/SwPYrzA.png

Like all of the sudden next year MLB see decides there should be a limit to how much money a team can spend.

the owners already made that decision in 1994 and have maintained it ever since, fortunately they can't unilaterally impose their will on the players

I'm so depressed, fuck baseball and fuck the Mets.

There’s gotta be a billionaire hedge fund manager who’s also a pirates fan, right?

mark cuban is from pittsburgh. but he's also the kind of guy MLB owners would never let into their club

yeah as I understand it he tried to buy the Cubs like 10-15 years ago and they wouldn't let him

Move over, baby shoes, there's a new saddest short story in town: CORREA GIANTS JERSEY, NEVER WORN

— Emma Baccellieri (@emmabaccellieri) December 21, 2022

Even Cuban’s not rich enough to keep up with a Cohen

He also bid on the Rangers when Hicks went bankrupt.

Giants getting subtweeted by Gausman (and Logan Webb in the replies agreeing)

There is a fine line between dipping an Oreo for the perfect amount of time or having it break off into the milk. Sometimes in life you gotta take risks and be able to live with the consequences

— Kevin Gausman (@KevinGausman) December 22, 2022

There’s an Athletic article about this fuckup.

The organization entered a collective cone of silence. Messages weren’t returned. Players contacted via text said they had no idea what was happening. Neither did minority members of the ownership group, who hadn’t been briefed on the reason for the delay but remained optimistic that any minor or unforeseen snags would be overcome. If it’s a postponement, that means it’s still going to happen, right?

Instead, 15 minutes after news broke Dec. 13 that the Giants and Correa had agreed to terms, club president Farhan Zaidi and manager Gabe Kapler called Crawford and informed the most accomplished shortstop in franchise history, a two-time World Series champion, a player who has made more Opening Day starts as a Giant than anyone other than Willie Mays and Barry Bonds, that he had to learn another position.

What do you tell Crawford now, especially after Correa agreed to play third base for the Mets — something the Giants didn’t seem to have the courtesy to ask of him?

Tbfttfsfg, Correa is only playing 3rd in NY cos Lindor is already shortstop there, no? They could at least have had that conversation before the trade went live, but this is the club where Bengie Molina found out he’d been traded by guys coming up to him in flight after seeing it on espn.

Here's the KNBR audio of Tolbert & Copes breaking the Carlos Correa news to Steve Young live on air. Definitely a top 10 funniest moment on KNBR. pic.twitter.com/hLS67WqYS3

— LOLKNBR (@LOLKNBR) December 22, 2022

reds have dfa’d mike moustakas, who is owed $18m in 2023 and a $4m buyout for 2024

in three seasons in cincy he hit .216/.300/.383 in 184 games for -1.8 bWAR while making ~$35m

at some point the "mooooooooooooooooos" turned into real "booooooooooooooooooo"s

Trevor Bauer’s initial 324-game suspension under MLB’s domestic violence policy has been reduced to 194 games by an arbitrator, ending a seven-month grievance process.

— Alden González (@Alden_Gonzalez) December 23, 2022

Dodgers are gonna drop him apparently… Does any team pick him up?!

If a team picks him up it’s for the ML minimum right?

this is bad news for the Dodgers right, because now they have to start paying him again?

Giants made their big move.

https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/35310124/giants-michael-conforto-reach-2-year-36m-deal-sources-confirm

Signing the second Rogers twin clearly a move to confuse other teams, subterfuge and trickery in lieu of a franchise cornerstone.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Fkqza6fUAAEhiiG?format=jpg&name=medium

hey, i mean the good news if you're a giants fan is that clearly the team is willing to offer gigantic contracts, and next year shohei ohtani will hit free agency.